There was a sense of ominous reality from Tom Daley last week. ‘Qiu Bo from China is very much the gold medal favourite,’ read a statement from the teenager’s management.

It was an attempt to suppress expectations as Britain’s most high-profile diver prepares for his home Olympics against the most formidable diving team ever assembled.

It is only a semi-joke to say that any one of 100 Chinese divers could win gold. ‘It’s certainly not far from the truth,’ said Steve Roush, who, as head of sport development for the US Olympic Committee, has visited China on fact-finding missions more than 20 times.

The challengers: Qiu Bo of China is one of the divers hoping to snatch Olympic gold away from Tom Daley

The picture Roush paints confirms the scale of what I witnessed when I visited one of the sports schools in Beijing last year. There was line after line of table tennis tables, more than 100 of them, with the click-clack of balls watched by attentive coaches — one coach per two tables.

Each school specialises in a certain cluster of sports. Gymnastics and diving, with their emphases on flexibility and balance, go together.

All the estimated 3,000 schools – or boot camps – are funded by the state. They amount to a national sports machine, modelled on the practice of the old Eastern Bloc. The Chinese model started in earnest in 2001 when Beijing won the right to stage the 2008 Games and the government approved the ‘Winning pride at the Olympics’ programme.

Teaching them young: Members of the Chongqing Sports Technique School Diving Team practice and below

It is sport by diktat and as far away from Corinthianism as it is possible to imagine. But it virtually ensures the continued eclipse of the United States as the strongest Olympic nation on the planet for the rest of our lifetimes.

Daley began diving through messing about at his local pool in Plymouth. It was a hobby that evolved into a time-consuming passion. With the help of coach Andy Banks, he won a gold medal at the World Championships in

Rome in 2009. All the time, he was balancing his school work and family commitments. His late father Rob drove Tom and his brothers, William and Ben, to their various sporting activities. He called himself ‘taxi driver dad’.

In China the process is more clinical. Children as young as six are tested for their size, skills and fitness as part of a talent identification strategy.

Golden boy: Tom Daley knows the pressure is on for him to deliver a gold medal for Great Britain

They are then monitored as they develop, the better ones moving seamlessly from their local schools to state, regional and national schools, in some cases until they reach their early twenties. Drawing from a population of 1.3 billion, it is a process rich in potential for world domination.

The school system causes family separation for weeks on end but the parents do not always mind. The socio-economic climate means many of them welcome the education their children receive. It is free, as are meals and accommodation.

Whereas over in Britain parents often prioritise academic study ahead of gambling on a sports career, the Chinese model supposedly caters for both. The days are split between the classroom and sport, although some former pupils claim they merely ran, slept and ate.

In sync: Great Britain's Tom Daley and Pete Waterfield practice during the 18th FINA Visa Diving World Cup at the Aquatics Centre

Up to about the age of 12, the emphasis is on skill development rather than on competition. Watch a Chinese pupil writing or doing maths and they do it deliberately rather than fast.

‘It is a pipeline like no other in the world,’ said Roush, now a sports consultant with TSE. ‘The athlete pool is so vast, so alive with skilled young talent that there are always others pushing through the pipeline. You just have to get better or get out of the way.’

It was this system that led China to all 10 diving gold medals at the World Championships in Shanghai last year.

The hopes of a nation: Daley and Waterfield are among the gold medal favourites

Qiu Bo, 19, won 10 metre platform titles in the individual and synchronised disciplines against Daley and his partner Pete Waterfield. Bo registered 25 perfect 10s in all and scored a world record 609.20 points in the individual competition.

Nothing is known about Bo except that he came from Sichuan in south west China to take his place as one of about 25 divers based at the National Training Centre in Beijing.

Those who have been into the building say giant screens play back dives instantly. Divers are thought to spend four hours a day diving. That work is supplemented by similar time in the gym — diving into foam, trampolining, sometimes with harnesses and crash mats.

Head first: Daley and Waterfield face stiff competition from China

All schools are decorated with large Chinese flags — a reminder that pupils are national property. I did not see any hint of mistreatment at the school I visited. Roush, who enjoyed increasingly free access during his many visits to China, reports the same. ‘I never bore witness to any intimidation,’ he said.

‘The coaches would call out the dives and work on improvements. It was constructive. But I would say that expectation rises as the divers progress and the pressure mounts. There have been disgruntled athletes, but are they lashing out just because they have been removed from the system? I don’t know.’

Guo Jingjing — dubbed the Diving Diva — hinted at the problems of the hermetically-sealed state system when she retired from diving last year at the age of 29. Four Olympic gold medals and 17 world titles to her name, she craved ‘a quiet and normal life’.

Making a splash: Daley and Waterfield enter the pool at the London 2012 Aquatics Centre

She added: ‘When you are diving you do not have to worry about meals because everything is prepared at big canteens. Now, I’m struggling to think about where to have my next meal. Sometimes I have to cook for myself. It is something I am still getting used to.

‘I don’t want to be a coach. I am a quiet and soft-hearted person and not suited to it. You have to be strict with young athletes during training and competitions and I’m afraid I couldn’t do that.’

Not everyone is so reluctant to hail the system. Alexei Evangulov, performance director of British Diving and therefore Daley’s boss, is an avowed admirer. A Russian champion of the Cold War era, he has a natural affinity with the centralised, no-distractions practice.

The venue of dreams: The London 2012 Aquatics Centre opened it's doors this week

Last week he criticised the extent of Daley’s media portfolio. In China, divers do speak to the state-regulated media but their ‘interviews’ are censored.

‘The Chinese divers spend time in a camp, focused on diving,’ Evangulov told Sportsmail. ‘There is no homework to get in the way.

‘Take Jack Laugher, a talented young British diver. His parents want him to do well in school. But I have told them they must forget that if he is to fulfil his potential as a diver. We do not get together often enough as a squad. It makes it hard to beat the Chinese.’

Qiu Bo and his partner Huo Liang will sit out the synchro event at the World Cup at the Olympic Aquatics Centre today. Is that an opening for Daley and Waterfield to win? The fear is that it presents another Chinese pair, Cao Yuan and Zhang Yanquan, with the chance to demonstrate how their country’s diving pipeline continues to flow unabated.